Back To Trebizon
by Fic Fairy
Summary: Desperately in need of some stability in her otherwise rocky life, 29 year old Rebecca Mason has just been appointed as House Parent of Juniper Hall at her old school. Can she put her demons to bed and get on with the job?


**Back to Trebizon**

Rebecca Mason stood at the French window of her bedroom in the exclusive Park Lane apartment she had called her home for the last three months. Below Hyde Park was a throng of tourists snatching some last minute sunshine in the final days of summer, looking like they had not a care in the world. Rebecca dearly wished she could remember what that felt like, but in truth she didn't have a hope, especially considering the challenge that was just around the corner.

"You look like a lady having second thoughts." came a voice from behind her, and she turned, nearly falling over a pile of suitcases as she did so, to find her old friend Sally Elphinstowe stood in the doorway to her room, a wicker basket in her hands.

Rebecca shrugged, "Just nervous I guess."

"You could always stay." Sally said, moving towards her, as Rebecca marvelled not for the first time at the transformation in her friend. At school Sally, or Elf as they'd called her back then, had been food obsessed, the plump one and yet now, 11 years on from those final whirlwind like days at Trebizon, she was a slender size 8, with a figure that even a catwalk model would have been proud of. Rebecca still didn't know how she'd done it, not least because she'd made her passion for all things edible into a career, being as she was the owner of two successful and very exclusive restaurant / deli's in the capital, but she suspected that the sparkling diamond ring on her left hand was something of a clue; the love of a good man and all that; Sally had an Autumn wedding planned.

And that was just one of the reasons that Rebecca couldn't change her mind. The lovebirds didn't need her as a cuckoo in their nest any longer, and beyond that, months shy of her 30th birthday she needed to settle down herself, find her own way, put down some real roots. For the last few years she'd moved from pillar to post, seeing the world and abusing the hospitality of her family and friends; her parents in Saudi, Pippa in Paris, Mara in Greece, Margot in the States and finally, Sally back in London. It had been fun and she'd been glad to see them all, and they her, but the time had come to act her age, after all, sleeping on people's metaphorical floors, even in an apartment as nice as this one, was no way for a grown up to behave.

She smiled at Sally, "I can't stay." She offered no explanation, but then she didn't need to, none was needed; the two of them had spent hours in Sally's minimalist living room discussing the very issue long into the night on more than one occasion. Instead Sally just held the basket she was carrying out to her, a wide grin on her face, "In that case, you'll need these."

She took the basket quizzically, rested it on the top of her tallest suitcase and lifted the lid to peer inside, gasping as she did so. "Sally," she exclaimed, "they're wonderful."

Sally's grin widened, "They're for the staffroom so at least if you can't make friends you can buy them in the currency of cakes."

And buy them she certainly would, she thought as she looked down at row on row of perfectly iced cupcakes that Sally had given her, each topped with a delicate looking hand made gilt edged badge with a 'T' at its centre. She reached out and hugged her friend, "Thank you so much. They're amazing." She glanced back at the cupcakes again, and those badges and suddenly all the fears she'd started to have began to melt away. Seeing that golden 'T', backed with burgundy and navy made everything seem fine, made her think it would be fine.

After all, how could it not be?

She was going home…

xxx

Rebecca's return to Trebizon had been Sue's doing. She'd been the one who had sent the fateful Facebook message two months before that had set off the chain of events which saw Rebecca's bags being loaded into Sally's driver's car ready for the long drive down to the West Country. Sue had returned there herself after university, marrying Justin as they'd all predicted and working as a peripatetic music teacher at both Garth College and Trebizon. She and Rebecca had talked often over on the phone and online and Rebecca had eaten up Sue's stories of their old school but never had she dreamt she'd go back herself.

Then the job came up, Houseparent of Juniper Hall, where she, Sue, Tish and the others had been junior boarders themselves. She'd applied at Sue's urging, humouring her more than anything, not believing for a second that she'd get so much of an interview, but she must have done something right because an interview she got and was then a week later the offer letter came and suddenly the whole thing got a lot more real.

At first, she'd refused point blank to take the job, claiming that she didn't know the first thing about being a Houseparent but the intervention of her friends, Sally in London and a furious debate via Skype with Pippa she did eventually bite the bullet and sign the contract. The contract that during the journey back to Trebizon, in spite of her early confidence, she regretted signing all over again.

It all just seemed so unreal, but then that was true of so much of her life in recent years. Things hadn't exactly gone according to plan for her, and if this didn't work she wasn't really sure what she'd do next. As dramatic as it sounded, she was reaching a point where she was running out of options.

Still - she thought to herself - that kind of attitude wasn't going to get her very far at all. It would be better to take her new life one day and one challenge at the time, hope for the best and put all thoughts of failure out of her mind. And it was with that thought that, as the car drove into the all too familiar gates on to the Trebizon campus, she told herself to pull it together and stop being so pathetic. This was a new start for her; she had to grab at it with both hands.

She directed the driver effortlessly up to the Main School buildings, the route still second nature to her, even after all those years. To begin with, it seemed as if Trebizon hadn't changed at all, just sat still and silent ever since the day she left, waiting for her to return, but then she spotted the modern looking new build library and realised that things had moved on after all.

And there was no greater indicator of that than when they finally reached the main buildings and after asking the driver to wait went inside to announce her arrival. There was she was shown into the study she'd always known as the Headmistress, Miss Welbeck's, but on this occasion it was occupied by someone else entirely.

"Rebecca." Richard Parsons, Trebizon's Principal, got to his feet to greet her as she entered, smiling at her warmly and holding out his hand to shake hers, "It's good to see you again, and I'm so happy you took the post."

He was in his late 40's, but looked younger, and there was something about him that reminded her of John F Kennedy; not least his accent, a warm American drawl. His lively enthusiastic approach made him seem out of place in the traditional English study, but Rebecca knew from her interview that in his own way he was as formidable as his predecessor.

She shook his hand, "It's good to see you too. And thank you, for offering me the job."

He smiled again, "It's my pleasure. You're going to be just the breath of fresh air that the girls in Juniper need."

His faith in her was reassuring but as he reached for a pile of paperwork from his desk and handed it to her, her nerves started to grow once more.

"There's lists of new intake here, you'll need to liaise with Sue about rooms etc, and there's also details of a Child Protection Course I've booked you onto, plus your teaching schedule, and also the Boarding Schools NMS, you really need to look over those…"

She glanced down at the papers, trying to make sense of them all, whilst simultaneously trying to quell or at least hide her rising panic. She obviously didn't do a great job of that however since the Principal suddenly backtracked,

"But we've got two days of inset for all that, so let's start with the basics. I'll get Sarah to show you to your accommodation, you can settle in over the weekend and we'll talk again Monday."

It was a relief, the concept of the brakes being on. She'd been out of the workplace for too long to be dropped back in at the deep end so drastically. Settling in seemed like a much better start.

They said their goodbyes and then Sarah, Richard's PA walked with her to Juniper as the car followed along behind with her possessions. The other woman was warm and friendly, and instantly put Rebecca at her ease, chatting generally about life at Trebizon, without the whirlwind of information her boss had unleashed on her.

"So," she said, when they arrived, and she unlocked the flat, "this is you."

Rebecca followed her in, and surveyed her new home with some delight. Her recollections of it, from her days as a boarder in Juniper, had been of old fashioned décor and 'traditional' furniture, but it had apparently been made over, and was now bright and airy with a very modern touch.

She turned to Sarah and smiled, "It's lovely. Thank you."

After a brief tour, Sarah, along with the driver helped bring in her bags, and then driver left, and Sarah also made to depart, although first making sure that Rebecca had everything she needed, and writing down her telephone extension so that she could contact her with any queries. She was almost out of the door, when she stopped and turned back,

"Oh, one more thing. I have a message for you, from Joss. She said she's sorry she wasn't here to meet you, and she'll be round about 8..."

xxx

It had been the fact that Joss Vining was working at Trebizon, along with Sue living nearby, that had finally convinced Rebecca to take the position. If there was one thing she'd learnt over the last few years, it was that it was good to have your friends around you and although it had been years since she'd last seen Joss, the two had always got on, and the idea of having her living and working in close proximity was something of a comfort; and never more so than at that moment as Rebecca found herself feeling a little bit lost, standing in the middle of the flat with just a couple of suitcases of her own possessions for company. She'd been here once before, as a shy twelve year old arriving at boarding school for the first time, and while the temptation to regress into that familiar old feeling was great the prospect of Joss coming to visit later that evening spurred her on as she put the sense of panic and abandonment to one side and concentrated on her unpacking.

Not that it took long. She travelled light, bringing with her only her clothes, a bag of toiletries, her laptop and a few other essential items. It wasn't much considering her 29 years on earth but she'd been on the move so long that hoarding had ceased to be an option; and the flat was furnished anyway so it wasn't as if she desperately needed anything else.

Unpacking complete she moved into the kitchen and opened the fridge. Someone had kindly left milk and butter, and there was tea, coffee and bread on the work surface but she knew she'd be needing other supplies too. Checking her watch she saw that she still had a couple of hours or so before Joss arrived and so decided to head down into town; it wouldn't take long - as students they'd been able to leave after school, and get there and back before tea.

Of course, she wasn't a student anymore as she discovered after approximately 3 minutes of jogging when she found herself too tired and breathless to do anything other than walk the rest of the way. It was hardly surprising. It had been years since she'd done any serious exercise, beyond the occasional gentle swim, or the session on the Wii Fit, both of which were a long way from regular PE lessons, after school practices and weekly matches. Still, it was dispiriting, and she made a promise to herself there and then that she'd join the school gym, take up running again and get herself back to the peak of physical fitness before the summer term came around. Then she would play tennis. Not competitively; that was out of the question, but for fun, with Joss.

And run down to town. Speedily.

But for the moment, she ambled, across the school site, around the Hilary Camberwell Music Centre (which always reminded her of Sue) and then through the little gate that led to the path down into the town. The town, that like the school itself, in many ways looked the same, but in places had undergone change too. The Trebizon Bay Hotel was now Jury's Inn, and even more shockingly, to Rebecca at least, Fenners, the little coffee shop that had been their favourite spot to meet the Garth boys, was now a Starbucks. A sign of the times she supposed, but a sad one.

She made her way into Londis, picked up a basket and wandered around the store, picking up a few stock cupboard items, and some ready meals to keep her going over the weekend. In the crisp aisle she picked up some Pringles and Doritos, plus a salsa, thinking that if Joss was going to be kind enough to come over to welcome her the least she could do was provide a nibble or two. Then finally she reached the wines and spirits section, and selected a couple of decent bottles of white, one red and a few cans of premixed Gin and Tonic. Her health kick did cross her mind briefly, but she pushed the thought to one side, although when it came to paying she did manage to resist the temptation to pick up 20 B&H Gold but that was more to do with the No Smoking on School Property clause in her contract than any concern for her own wellbeing. No point in getting said contract terminated before the term had even begun.

Shopping complete, she stepped back onto the High Street and the headed into The Trebizon Arms, deciding to go for a drink before she walked back up to school. It was, she quickly realised, an error. While the beer was cold, the décor and clientele pleasant and the IT Box ready to entertain her, just being there bought back too many memories of a night she'd long since pushed to the back of her mind.

Her 18th birthday. Cliff. Robbie. General carnage. The end of her friendship with Tish. The revelations and culmination of the first big mistake she'd made in her life. There had been several since, but somehow that still felt like the worst, and more to the point, the place where all the others had probably begun, where her downward had begun.

She lost on the quiz machine because she was barely paying attention; too wrapped up in the past. She shook her head trying to clear it, just wanting all the memories to go away but failed to shift them and so, in the end, she downed her pint and left.

Clearly some places just weren't worth revisiting.


End file.
